For Prof. Friedhelm Loh, the annual celebrations to mark employee anniversaries are a calendar highlight. The three-hour event honours employees who are celebrating 10, 25, 40 or even 50 years with an FLG company. It also honours the top students joining the group. On 13 December 2020, more than 160 employees celebrating anniversaries together with the top students from the StudiumPlus programme and the best apprentices of their year were honoured by the owner and CEO.
The event celebrates the past and also looks to the future: in order to understand the present and be well-equipped for the future, it is important to understand your own past. The annual anniversary celebrations at the Friedhelm Loh Group take participants on a journey from past to present to future, through turbulent times, and acknowledges outstanding employee achievements. At Stützelberg in Herborn, Prof. Loh and his anniversary employees celebrate the past milestones past as well as looking to the future.
“In 1969, you could have walked the entire length of the company in 15 minutes,” the owner pointed out at the start of his presentation. “At that time, the company’s entire premises covered 22,000 square metres. Today, the Haiger plant alone covers 24,000” .
It wasn’t easy starting out, he said, and we would not have survived without the unstinting dedication of our employees.
Moving small enclosure production from Rittershausen to Herborn was a massive challenge. The company now faces a similar situation with the new plant in Haiger. “We made the right decision then,” says the entrepreneur, echoing the management’s resolve at the time. “Haiger will be the same.”
Looking back, Prof. Loh found the 1980s particularly exciting. The period was marked by the implementation of a wealth of new ideas and extensive investment. By acquiring companies such as Wiechers & Partner (now Eplan), the group began to specialise in software at a time when the sector was still comparatively unknown. Today, Eplan is a world market leader in engineering and a “first-class address”.
The secret of our success: Continuity and commitment
The company owes its success primarily to the huge commitment of its employees, stressed Prof. Loh. “I have a great deal to thank them for. Without their hard work, identification with the company and trust in my corporate goals, and their willingness to go the extra mile, we would not all be here today.”
He described it as a special honour to be able to personally congratulate the employees celebrating 40 years with the company, and in particular Reineer Schüler celebrating 50 years of service. “They must have had a positive experience, otherwise they wouldn’t have stayed so long!”
Highly educated new recruits also contribute to the company’s success, he pointed out. “Training has always been a top priority throughout the entire group, and our committed approach to qualifications-building has proven worthwhile.” The year’s best apprentices were acknowledged for their outstanding achievements and presented with a book and a bonus. They were: Industrial business management assistant Moritz Harbusch (final grade 1.3), Pascal Dibelius (industrial business management assistant at Stahlo, grade 1.5) and Jonas Theiss (tool mechanic, grade 1.6).
Prof. Loh also congratulated Tobias Hartmann (mechanical engineering, grade 1.0), Mischa Etz (industrial engineering, grade 1.1) and Anna-Lena Bertscheit (business studies, grade 1.1) for their outstanding grades in the StudiumPlus programme in collaboration with Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen university.
“We need to be able to find our way through these difficult times,” Prof. Loh later appealed to his guests of honour, also warning that when developing new technologies such as e-mobility, it was important to consider the alternatives. “For decades, the automotive industry has been one of the most important German industries, if not THE most important. We now need to engage in a more differentiated debate and avoid harming the industry unnecessarily.”